Unioto sets SCOPES on math, science

Unioto Elementary School fourth-grader Macy Renault looks at two containers filled with candy held by her teacher, Jenni Domo, who is leading the Science Cooperative of Physicians and Elementary Students Academy. Students in Domo’s class tried to estimate how many candies were in the containers during class Thursday, when they were learning about diabetes.
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Those two words — when paired together at the beginning of a question — can unlock a world of learning in Jenni Domo's classroom at Unioto Elementary School, the veteran teacher says.

At a time when some schools are eliminating or scaling back their gifted programs, Unioto is finding a new way to challenge its accelerated students with the Science Cooperative of Physicians and Elementary Students — or SCOPES — Academy, which is designed to provide weekly enrichment for advanced students in first through fifth grade in the areas of math and science.

Adena Health System is helping to fund SCOPES through its philanthropic arm, the Adena Foundation

SCOPES students study technology, medical science, forensic science and agricultural sciences in what Unioto officials said is one of only a handful of elementary school robotics labs in Ohio. Each day of the week, Domo welcomes students from a different grade level and has them for the entire day.

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Unioto is finding a new way to challenge its accelerated students with the Science Cooperative of Physicians and Elementary Students — or SCOPES — Academy.
David Berman/Gazette

"They get the chance to 'I wonder' and then we're off, and they're basically controlling the curriculum with their interests — and some monitoring," Domo said.

The goal of the program is to serve students who, from a performance standpoint, are in the top 20 percent, said Dana Letts, kindergarten through second grade principal at Unioto.

"We want to be able to serve every kid exactly where they are when they walk through the door," Letts said. "That is true whether they are three grade levels ahead in math or they are struggling."

When building the roster for the program, the staff took a number of criteria into consideration,

"We looked at a variety of factors — performance on standardized tests, teacher recommendations, their grades and their attendance," Letts said. "Is their behavior good enough that they can be in a $20,000 robotics lab and not break things?"

Letts created the program from scratch, in part because she saw Adena physicians opting to commute from Columbus and keep their children in school there rather than relocating to Ross County but also because there were no existing programs that matched her vision.

She studied a number of corporate-supported programs in the Columbus area, where she used to work, but couldn't find anything specifically geared toward elementary-level students.

"There's always the question, 'Why elementary kids?' Because if we wait until sixth grade, we've lost them," Letts said. "It's just the nature of an elementary school that we reward reading and writing. They get stickers and have pizza parties.

"We wanted to put something in place that right from the beginning of an educational career would make learning math and science, and being good at math and science, cool and exciting and rewarding for our students."

The Union-Scioto Board of Education threw its support behind the program and told Letts to go find the right teacher to implement the program.

Domo, who taught at Allen Elementary School in Chillicothe for more than 20 years, "was exactly what we wanted for the program," Letts said.

"What was very powerful is that parents and students asked me to apply for the job," Domo said. "I looked at the job description and I said, 'That is me.' "

Domo said she has always felt that talented and gifted students were the ones most at-risk of not meeting their maximum growth potential.

Adena was "a natural choice" to partner with Unioto, Letts said.

"We're hoping this will spark some kids to want to be homegrown doctors," she said.

"A problem we have at the hospital is physician recruitment," said Dr. Bill Sever, an Adena physician and a Ross County native. "We struggle to keep (homegrown) physicians in our area. ... It was kind of a no-brainer for us."

In an effort to reach students beyond Unioto's walls, Domo will host a math and science academy next summer for teachers from all of the county schools, as SCOPES has "a different style than what you see in a general education classroom."

Letts said the district wants to eventually grow the program in such a way that it enriches science and math instruction for all students. The robotics lab is set up serve a small number of students, so there are certain limitations.

"If this is successful, we would be interested in expanding it," she said. "There's no real model to look at, because it's our model."

Adena also is interested in expanding the program, Sever said.

"My hope is that, one day, this isn't just at Unioto, but all of the county schools," he said.